1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to a redundant power system used to supply power to an information handling system, and more particularly to a system and method for reducing power consumption when selectively putting one or more individual power supply units (PSUs) of a redundant power system to sleep.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continue to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
An information handling system (IHS), such as a computer server or a blade server system, often utilizes a redundant power system to achieve uninterrupted and reliable supply of power. With a redundant power system (RPS), there are at least two power supply units (PSUs) working in concert to collectively provide uninterrupted power to an IHS. Occasionally, for an RPS having two PSUs, there are circumstances under which one PSU supplies power to the IHS while the other PSU is put into the “hot spare” state. The “hot spare” state refers to a state where the PSU is disabled from actively supplying power by being put into a sleep mode, while remaining in readiness to supply power without any startup delay when required. Thus, in an RPS having two PSUs, if one PSU is detected as failed, the other PSU maintained in the “hot spare” state can pick up where the failed PSU left off by supplying power without any delay, thereby enabling the IHS to receive uninterrupted power.
In the conventional approach to a PSU shutoff situation, the PSU having the lower or lowest power efficiency is automatically selected to be shut off. The conventional approach, however, overlooks the fact that when a PSU is disabled by being put into the “hot spare” state, the disabled PSU still consumes power in order to be held in readiness to supply power. As a result, selecting the one PSU to disable by using the conventional approach at times results in system power consumption higher than what would have resulted if the other PSU was selected for disabling.
Accordingly, aspects of the disclosure recognize that, in order to truly minimize the overall power consumption of the RPS in a PSU-shutoff situation, there is a need for a different approach than the aforementioned conventional approach of automatically selecting the PSU with the lower power efficiency to disable.